Buckle for belts or the like



Feb. 16, 1960 R. BERNING 2,924,865

BUCKLE FOR BELTS OR THE LIKE Filed Feb. 21, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 $7 Fig.1

Fig. 1

Fig. 0

Feb. 16, 1960 Filed Feb. 21, 1957 R. BERNING BUCKLE FOR BELTS OR THE LIKE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 BUCKLE non BELTS OR THE LIKE Rudolf Berning, Schwelm, Germany, assignor to Firma Otto Berning & Co., Schwelm (Westphalia), Germany The present invention relates to a buckle adapted for connection of the ends of belts on clothes or the like.

Buckles comprise conventionally an upper member and a lower member and either both members or the upper member only are covered with a piece of cloth made of the clothes-material and are, thereby, connected by tying up the cross member of the buckle. Buckles with two bridge members are also known already. They have the advantage, when used as closure for a belt or the like, that they do not require a pin or eyes, because due to the close distance between the cross members towards the outside of the buckle a self locking of the beltor the like is achieved. This distance is, however, usually so small, that a proper working of the inner corners of the buckle is impossible. In order to avoid this drawback, it is necessary to move the cross members towards the center of the buckle. If this is done, a self locking of the belt cannot be achieved.

It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a buckle for belts or the like which avoids the above mentioned drawback of the known buckles and to form the buckle in simple and advantageous manner, so that a special cross member is provided which permits of the choice of the distance between the inside of the buckle and the cross member.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a buckle which is equipped with two stamped out cross members which have a projection on one side and which may be inserted in known manner into the hollow lower frame member of the buckle, and particularly in such manner that each projection penetrates the threading opening for the belt. The projection thus serves the purpose to narrow the threading opening of the buckle for the belt, in order to achieve a self locking of the threaded belt.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a buckle which is equipped with two stamped out cross members, each of which has a projection stamped out of the cross member and formed of a cut-in arm. in order to prevent a tipping of the cross member in the finished buckle, each of the cross members is equipped at its ends with holding pieces, which fitinto the U-profile of one of the hollow frame members, the inner legs of which have for this purpose oppositely disposed recesses. It is also possible-to interconnect the holding pieces of a pair of cross members, so that they form with the pair of cross members an integral frame,

in order to simplify the assembly of the buckle and in order to fortify the cross members, in accordance with the present invention. 1 With these and other objects in view which will bec me apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective top view of a pair of cross members;

Fig. 2 is. a perspective top view of the complementary hollow lower frame member of the buckle;

frame member of the buckle with the pair of cross members, shown in Fig. 1, mounted thereon; Fig. 4 is a perspective top view of an integrally pair of'cross members; a

'Fig. 5 is a perspective top view of the hollow lower frame member with the integrally formed pair of cross members mounted thereon;

Fig. 6 is a top perspective view of a finishedbuckle; and

.Fig. v7 is a'section along the lines 7-7 of Fig; 6." r

Referring now to the drawing, the stamped out cross members 1 are equipped with a projection 2 and holding ledges 3 at their ends. The hollow lower frame member 4 of the buckle has at its inner leg recesses 5 which receive the cross members 1; whereby the projections 2 are directed towards the outer sides of the hollow lower frame member 4 of the buckle, while the holding ledges 3 are disposed within the U-profile 6 of the hollow lower frame member 4 of the buckle. As clearly shown in Fig. 6 of the drawing, these holding ledges 3 are covered over by the hollow upper frame member 7 in the finished buckle. Either both members 4 and 7 or the hollow upper frame member 7 only are covered with a piece of cloth 14.

In the second embodiment of the present invention, disclosed in Fig. 4, the pair of cross members is formed integrally. The opposite sides of a frame 13, which form the cross members 11, form projections 12 which are directed towards the outside of the buckles. By this arrangement the distance between the inner side 8 of the buckle and the cross members may be chosen at will. Thus the manufacture of the proposed buckles is greatly simplified. Instead of inserting separate cross members 1 into the hollow lower frame member 4, as shown in Fig. 3, it is merely necessary to insert the frame 13, which may be plane even in curved buckles, since it accommodates itself easily to the curvature of the hollow lower frame member 4. For this reason the frame 13 may be inserted into the lower frame in any appropriate manner. By varying the length of the projections 12 of the frame 13 the threading opening may be provided to a larger or smaller extent, depending upon the thickness of the material of the belt. In this arrangement it is not required to move the recesses 5' in accordance with the different cross members 11, 11 for different thicknesses of the material for the belt, since the variations are achieved solely by different lengths of the projections 12, 12.

The frame 13 including both cross members 11 brings about inherently a greater stability of the buckle.

It is to be understood that the frame 13 may be stamped out of sheet metal or be bent of wire.

While I have disclosed several embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that these embodiments are given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claims.

I claim:

1. A composite buckle comprising a hollow upper frame member covered with textile material, a hollow lower frame member connected to said hollow upper formed frame member, said members having overlapping edge the corresponding of said cross members a threading slot, one of said frame members having on the longitudinal sides oppositely disposed slots receiving the end portions of said cross members and locating the longitudinal position of said cross members relative to said one frame member, and each of said cross members. has a tongue-likerprojection directed towards the adjacent one of said cross sides and adapted to be cut to any predetermined length depending upon the thickness of the covering textile material, said tongue-like projection defining a U-shaped threading slot jointly witl tithe longitudinal sides of the corresponding cross side. i I

2. The buckle, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said cross members areintegrally formed with said projection. 3. The buckle, as set forth in claim 1, which includes holding ledges projecting from both ends of each of said cross members in the same direction 'as that of said 15 ,7

tongue-like projection and received by the longitudinal sides of said frame members.

4. The buckle, as set forth in claim 1, which includes longitudinal leg members connecting the corresponding ends of two cross members to form a single frame and being received in said longitudinal sides of said frame members. i

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,995,713 Lerma Ma':. 2.6, 1935 2,011,634 Hirsh Aug. 20, 1935 2,667,677 Ganz Feb. 2; 1954 White et a1. Dec. 20, 1955 

